Monday, May 23, 2011

Specialized For Children? Not Exactly

This weekend we had the dis-pleasure of having to check in at our local hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital, for our 9 year old who has been dealing with constant stomach pains and issues. Her issues seemed to have escalated Friday night and hubby and I felt pretty helpless and not knowing what to do decided to stop in at the NEW Children's ER. Our initial thought to stop in was based on their new Children's ER they opened about a month and a half ago. Thinking it would be geared toward children and wouldn't freak her out much, we thought this was best since our Dr. was closed.

Everything started out fine, we knew she wasn't "critical" so we had no issues with those who seemed more urgent moving in quicker...we were doing our best to help her breath through her pain and encouraging her with our words and hugs, she seemed to get through the intial part pretty well.

I would say we spent about 15-20 minutes out in the waiting area total. Once we were taken back to the Children's ER, which means you walk through the normal ER, we were seen by a nurse pretty quickly, changed into an ADULT gown and were told by the nurse that the Dr. would be in shortly, that she didn't want to really poke around too much because the Dr. would do just that.

We sat in that room for an hour and a half, possibly a bit longer, before we saw the Dr., never once had a Dr. pop in to do a quick check, nothing.........I had to initially ask if she was aloud to use the bathroom because she had to pee, where they then place the cup in the toilet so she could give them a urine sample. That was probably half way through our stay.

We didn't get a Dr. into the room until I went out and voiced my opinion to the insane wait we had to endure, in a Children's ER that was not busy, all while we listend to nurses and whoever else was around discuss weekend plans, play with the other children in the ER, I think we counted 3.

Now, by the time the Dr. did come in, of course the pain was gone. The nurse mentioned twice while she was in and out telling us the Dr. would be in, that her white cell counts were elevated and she probably had a UTI, but that was it.

She did get some water and animal crackers to eat after the Dr. did finally see her, I think they wanted to see if the pain would come back with eating, since we were discharged after she ate they were not around to see that the pain did in fact come back after she ate, but they could have seen that if they would have stopped in the room earlier than 1 1/2 hours after we got there.

I guess you can tell my thoughts on this new ER are not good, and I probably won't be back in there any time soon with an emergency. I really should have used my gut instinct and gone to St. Lukes, but, I was thinking more about how quick I thought they could help my little girl, and I was wrong.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

I'm not leaving

But I have been asked to take part in a new blog format in my area and I made my first attempt yesterday. I would love your thoughts on how you think my first blog went....good or bad...

http://lowermacungie.patch.com/blog_posts/why-do-we-worry

Friday, May 6, 2011

Monday, May 2, 2011

It's been a few weeks

And things are changing so fast in our house...it's hard to keep up anymore.

The chickens are growing like the weeds in my garden, the weeds I can do without, but my girls are getting their voices and plumping up nicely.

The new coop made it's way over from Pop Pop's house, Jake and Pop worked on it along with Jakes' cousin Noah, they did an awesome job and the girls love their new house.

Now in the midst of playing with our six new family members and tending to their needs, we are in the midst of soccer yet again. Jake has decided to play with his U12 team again from last year, they did a great job in the fall and have even more team members this year. Yesterday was our second game and for the second time we won 2-0, with Jake and Mike scoring the two goals from yesterday's game. So very proud of Jake and how far he has come.

Our weeks ahead look just as busy, with the school year coming to a close, spring concerts this week, Emma and her orchestra concert this week, it's looking to be a nice, exciting and adventure filled spring.